Knitting Happenings

Well, some knitting is taking place over here at Casa Ripley. I've cracked open a ball of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that was languishing in my stash since I purchased it at a Boxing Day Sale held by one of our LYSs. I'm making my first pair of Monkeys. I figured the thousands of Ravelers who've knitted them can't be wrong, and I'm giving them a shot. These are for me, which is kind a switch, seeing as almost all my knitting has been for other people lately. The one downside to this yarn is a lack of nylon content, but I'll reinforce with some woolly nylon and see how that works out. I'm almost finished the first lace repeat, and I'm having a wonderful time knitting these socks!

I've got to seam up and add the buttons to the Saartje's booties, especially since the baby they're for has arrived. Additionally, I need to get his sweater done and off to London. I'm really having a hard time getting this stuff done, and I'm thinking I need to design a reward system involving the Monkeys. For example: I force myself to seam a booty, I get to do 5 rows of the Monkey. Or maybe, I knit a repeat of the sweater, and I get to knit 3 rounds on the Monkey. 

I've resumed attending the knitting circle at my favorite LYS, and am really enjoying making a few hours in my week to enjoy knitting and chatting with the other knitting ladies. Also, I've attended two salsa classes so far, and it's a good time. I wish my Sweetie was attending with me, but alas, salsa may be his favorite condiment but apparently it's not his favorite dance. In spite of this, I found myself powerless to resist this lovely Arequipa sock yarn which I'm going to knit into socks for him. Eventually. It's so soft, being wool, alpaca and nylon. 

Something about this fall has really brought on a case of Sock Fever. In addition to the Monkeys and the planned socks for Sweetie, I stash enhanced and ordered a giant skein of the Lettuce Lesson (which I already own in sportweight), in the wool/nylon base yarn SeeJayneKnit uses. I'm trying to exercise control, but it's a challenge these days. I find myself skulking around Etsy, looking at sock yarn with lust in my heart. 

My last piece of knitting to share is a drop stitch scarf I knitted for my swap partner for an Odd Ducks of Ravelry Brothers Grimm swap. I had a devil of a time photographing this thing, and have really only one half decent picture to show you. Part of the problem is that I'm always taking pictures at night when I blog, or in the case of the scarf, early in the morning before I ran to the post office to send it off to Nevada. This scarf was ridiculously difficult for me. I unintentionally dropped stitches, and couldn't figure out how to fix them. Fortunately, wiser knitters than I were willing to help me (thanks Pearl, and to the kind woman at Mad About Ewe in Nanaimo, who helped me when my ferry knitting when horribly wrong). It's the simplest pattern in the world, but it was an ill-starred one for me. 

In other news, I'm thinking of giving drop spindling a whirl (literally and figuratively, I suppose). The only thing stopping me is a lack of time. Maybe I'll save the spinning for December, as a reward for completing the semester's coursework. 

I have a few more posts planned for this week, so there should be a little more activity over here, homework permitting. Thanks for reading!